In the early nineteen eighties, Alfred and Natalie Cornell, gave one million dollars to The Central Presbyterian Church in the City of NY to help them continue a tradition of aiding underprivileged children.
This 185-year-old religious institution had a long history of aiding needy children, including the founding of Big Brothers in 1904 and Big Sisters in 1935. When the Reverend Douglas Grandegeorge became the 13th Pastor of Central Presbyterian, he was determined to have some of this fund, which through good management, has now reached three million dollars, to help underprivileged children around the world. The idea was to find an organization where, limited resources could make a big difference in the lives of Children. The organization we chose as our international focus was Surgeons of Hope foundation. After an initial contribution of 100,000 dollars, we have continued to support SOH with 50,000 dollars a year.
One of the church’s primary challenges is to “heal the sick”, we believe that saving the lives of children with curable heart disease continues to exhibit Christ’s healing ministry to the world. We encourage other faith communities to join us in the important work.